Saint Benedict of Aniane

Benedict of Aniane (Latin: Benedictus Anianensis; German: Benedikt von Aniane; c. 747 – 12 February 821 AD), born Witiza and called the Second Benedict, was a Benedictine monk and monastic reformer who had a substantial impact on the religious practice of the Carolingian Empire. His feast day is either February 11 or 12, depending on the liturgical calendar. According to Ardo, Benedict's biographer, he was the son of a Visigoth, Aigulf, Count of Maguelonne (Magalonensis comes). Originally given the Gothic name Witiza, he was educated at the Frankish court of Pippin the Younger, and entered the royal service as a page. He served at the court of Charlemagne and took part in his Italian campaign of 773, where he almost drowned in the Ticino River near Pavia while attempting to save his brother. The experience led him to act on a resolve which had been slowly forming in him, to renounce the world and live the monastic life. He later left the court and was received into the monastery of Saint Sequanus, the Abbey of Saint-Seine. At Saint-Seine, Benedict was made cellarer and then elected abbot, but realizing the monks would never conform to his strict practices he left and returned to his father's estates in Languedoc, where he built a hermitage. Around 780, he founded a monastic community based on Eastern asceticism at Aniane in Languedoc. This community did not develop as he had intended. In 782, he founded another monastery based on Benedictine Rule, at the same location. His success there gave him considerable influence, which he used to found and reform a number of other monasteries, eventually becoming the effective abbot of all the monasteries of Charlemagne's empire. In 781 Louis the Pious became King of Aquitaine and asked Benedict to reform the monasteries in his territory. Later, as Emperor, he entrusted him with the coordination of practices and communication among the monasteries within his domains.